-Elhorn, War Effort News-
The battlefront tensions were raising high in the contested zones as Zebulos couriers set out looking for help or to move supplies through the various realms to aid in holding back the Gedol offensive.
One such courier unit is The White Knight Couriers, the very couriers that thwarted Paeli’s plotted two pronged assault in Cladinhold. Though badly damaged the city still stands and is recovering, Zebulos soldiers are holding the line at the city of crossroads.
The White Knight Couriers, deciding to take the riskiest venture in the war effort, were seen tearing straight through the enemy lines to the northeast. In the process they ripped apart at least three supply depots on the way to their secret destination.
The western front between Zebulos, Zephyrus and Gedol has fallen back towards Gedol Empire’s main seat of power Devotindos City. Gedol’s front line falters and there are rumors of deserters among the lizard ranks due to the damaged supply depots and the inability to effectively field evil core machines.
The dark rocket knight, Axel Gear, has been deployed to the front lines to put down the rumors of defections with deadly force and to possibly hunt down the aforementioned deserters. He is also now on the hunt, looking for the White Knight Couriers to make an example of them.
Sparkster, the last true blue rocket knight, is still searching for the rumored magical swords to aid in the defeat of Emperor Gedol. He has come from his recent victory over one of their most powerful naga at the pyramids in the desert, having found another mystical sword. Currently he is tearing through Gedol’s northern forces as a one Opossum army unto himself.
Sparkster is heading towards Eginasem, but why? What can the world saving hero be planning?
In the east to far north east, Eginasem is holding firmly against Gedol incursions and their choke point has thus far been impenetrable. Paeli is stated to be in the area and the soldiers of Eginasem are concerned by the sight of the flagship under his command.
To the far north the Yellow Dog civil war continues, there is very little information about what is occurring there. What information we do have says that the ‘Cooler’ and ‘Wulfric’ factions are still fighting for domination.
Hydrigal, home of the amphibians within Gedol territories Mystical Mire, lies quiet. Have they been completely wiped off the map by their neighbors?
No words from the smaller fringe factions on whether they will join in the effort to push Gedol back.
-Hydrigal, Amphibian Ark, Cargo Hold Subsection D, Pom-
“Pom… I don’t want to be an alarmist, but… how can you possibly have negative fear?!” Glancing at Ocellus as she was freaking out I calmly raised my right brow at her. “It’s not courage or bravery as I know what those feel like from Shanty, it’s not even the absolute absence of fear, it is literally fear well into the negative. It’s like all your fears and anxieties just jumped off a cliff into a bottomless pit, leading into a void that got sucked into a black hole that subsequently goes into another one. How is that even possible for someone like you?!”
“Eh, I guess it just is.” I really don’t know what to tell Ocellus or why she was panicking so badly, this overgrown fly really didn’t scare me at all. I even felt like actually fighting him would be a one sided thing. “So… we’re dealing with you… our battle will likely be… okay, I can’t actually take this situation or even you seriously. I mean, you have to be one of the dumbest idiots to ever exist, how many times did you nearly die attacking a kingdom full of amphibians Mr. uh… what was it again… Beezy? It must have been so hard for you to get all the amphibians stuffed into this place like this you poor thing, going to all that effort for so little gain.”
“Foolish mortal I’m a demon, the great Beelzebug, the devourer of everything!” Ah so this… Beelzebug was it… was a demon. He could understand any language and could even do the whole speaking all the languages at the same time thing, thus the evil sounding voice distortions. Demons just loved doing that to freak people out. That distorted voice coming from Beezy… it rates a… meh. “Do you not fear the eternal suffering that I can bring down upon you?!”
“Yeah, you’re not that scary, I’d rate you being about as terrifying as a blade of grass.” Why was I receiving such an aghast look from Ocellus after saying that? “What are you going to do buzz loudly at me while I’m sleeping to keep me awake all night? Flare your power some more in a futile attempt to make me be like… oh no, you’re doing a scary glow to make yourself look more dangerous, but are actually wasting so much of your power to try and fail at being threatening. Are you just going try and bug me to death over the course of the next seventy or so years? Sorry, did stating that pun hurt your feelings or strike a nerve?”
“Pom, it’s a demon.” Ocellus said slowly and flatly while holding her hooves out to the hovering fly that was almost the size of my head, almost.
Said supposed Beezy was glowing purple and seething with rage, I wasn’t impressed at the display in the slightest.
“Yes, and your point Ocellus?” At least we were keeping him distracted as Bruno, Colleen and Jean tested the barrier that the many packed together amphibians were trapped behind. I’m sure they’ll figure that out eventually. “I have seen far worse things than your ugly proboscis Mr. Beezy.”
“You have witnessed worse than my mighty visage?” Beezy said curiously tilting his head. “May I know the name of what could make you overlook one such as me puny mortal? Afterwards I will make your death slow by sucking out your organs with my proboscis for such an insult!”
“I wouldn’t be the one talking about ‘puny’ for a morbidly overweight fly that has had a taste of one too many garbage cans. I can see why you call yourself the devourer, you certainly embody gluttony well enough.” The fly just hovered there, staring at me with a strange twitch in his right eye as he started to glow brighter. “Oh look at me, I’m a bug that got too big for my britches, I have dark powers, please acknowledge my pathetic existence senpai and cower before my attempts at being scary for only being what amounts to the local garbage collector and eater thereof. Also, do you really need to know the name of the demon I’m thinking of, when you say his actual name it has an effect. I bet saying your name, Beelzebug, doesn’t really do anything. Wow… some demon you are, you are definitely one of the greatest that I have ever met in my whole life, just the shining example of power and evil that all demons are known for.”
I was proven right, saying Beelzebug’s name didn’t elicit a reaction at all, other than an awkward silence as the supposed demon was growing even angrier than he was before.
“Pom, you’re beginning to scare me.” Ocellus stated with deep concern, how nice of her. “You are taunting a literal demon here, don’t you think that’s a bad idea… like, at all?”
Nicole said something, but I haven’t a clue what that was about. The Panther shaped machine charged into the area from the cave systems and glared me down with Mr. Beezy hovering above it crossing his front limbs.
“Will you mock me now mortal?” Is that was Mr. Beezy wanted?
Well… okay.
“Oh that’s so- scary, a demon that can’t even properly fight his own battles. That you need this sort of outside help to even be considered mildly threatening says a lot about you… none of it being worthwhile.” I stated in a bored tone, this demon was almost looking ready to explode. I wonder, could I actually get him to do that? “I’m Beelzebug, but please call me Mr. Beezy and watch me hug puppies. My time and existence is wasted on collecting friendly intelligent bipedal frogs that possibly nearly killed me multiple times.”
“They did not come even close to destroying a powerful being such as me!” Mr. Beezy stated while spreading all his legs and his inferno of dark magic continued to deepen with his anger.
I heard one of the frogs, feminine pink, beanpole, and nearest to Jean behind the barrier yell something our way.
“Apparently Beelzebug nearly died forty seven times trying to trap the amphibians over the course of the last two months.” Ocellus commented with a bit of shock. “Also she said his hindmost left leg was partially bitten off by a polliwog.”
Yeah, now that I look at it… that just made this supposed demon with dark magic and powers just pitiable at best that he had that much trouble with a child eating a part of him. Hoped that child grew up alright after such a harrowing experience with trying to survive how awful Mr. Beezy must have tasted.
“That foolish tadpole just got lucky!” Groused out a seriously angry Mr. Beezy and if I was right, he was about to make the purple glowing panther machine charge us.
“Wow, so even a child is a viable threat to you, way… to… go… you... you are seriously something else and totally worth the effort for me to fight. I definitely see you as a totally valuable member of this whole scenario of good versus evil, very threatening.” I stated as sarcastically and condescendingly as I possibly could while motioning my hooves at him. “You are definitely the best, why you’re the very epitome of dangerous Mr. Beezy. I’m totally frightened of your plan to make something else do the work that you really could never do yourself.”
“Attack my mechanical panther thrall!” I just took three steps to the right and lazily watched the mass of panther shaped machinery shoot by me.
“Ocellus could you get Jean to deal with the panther machine? I need to continue my discussion with Mr. Beezy here and his ludicrously obvious and dumb plan.” I think it was about time I name dropped Fred here. “As for the name of the demon that I think is far scarier then you, his name is… FHTNG!”
The world shook as a localized earthquake happened, the lights in the surrounding area turned dim and a red glow overtook everything, a supernatural chill swept through the area for a moment actually making me highly scared that he might actually show up… especially without his beloved Ollie to keep him in check.
Nothing came of it more than a effigy of Fred’s face bursting out of the nearby cave wall with a threatening sadistic grin on it. It was so much like the real thing that I shuddered to think of ever possibly invoking Fred’s real name like that again.
-Several dimensions over, Fred-
“No! We can’t go investigate a wannabe demon that invoked you Fred, besides we are in the middle of something important… and we’re still trying to find Pom.” My love was correct, that demon that possibly invoked my name as a joke was an utter joke himself and was so puny that I didn’t even need to bother with him.
Let an adventurer squash that tiny demon’s butt. I will admit that the demon was decent at masking all the presences around him, I still sent an effigy of myself just make things clear that he should not try me. Masking his presence and that of those around him was just about all the demon seemed to be decent at.
A useful skill to be sure, but not really worth scrutinizing all too much. I think he got my message readily enough.
Now back to what I was currently enjoying, our incredible fight with Thanos the Titan!
Those Infinity Stones of his are quite tricky to deal with, but I’m sure I can continue to be an effective counter to the cosmic powers in play here. Also, we were an outside context problem, Thanos couldn’t use this universes power to wipe us out instantly as we are from a completely different universe entirely and not part of the energies of this given universe.
That didn’t mean this Thanos wasn’t of a dangerous mind. Let’s rile him up a bit more, he was putting up a halfway decent fight for something that wasn’t a demon.
“Death is too good for the likes of you!” I shouted at the titan. “She deserves far better than a pathetic maggot like you, you can’t even kill my beloved dark magic unicorn here. All she has is a giant key with the abstract power of locking and unlocking anything and… SHE HAS YET TO EVEN USE THAT OR HER DARK MAGIC AGAINST YOU AND SHE’S BUCKING YOUR ASS UP AND DOWN THIS SHIP! What kind of husband for Death would you really be? ARE YOU EVEN REALLY TRYING TO BE HER CHAMPION OR NOT, EVEN I COULD DO A BETTER JOB THEN YOU AND I’M NOT EVEN INTERESTED IN HER!”
“You better not be Fred, or else I’ll put you in a literal dog house for a year with nothing but the color of eye searing pink to occupy your time!” My Ollie was so pure, so threatening… I simply loved her and Death couldn’t have her as she was mine and I was hers. It would be over my immortal impossible to destroy existence that she’d even get within an inch of even scraping Ollie vaguely!
I really got Thanos going, this will be quite enjoyable.
“Can we fight Galactus next Ollie?” My unicorn rolled her eyes and just sighed as she swung her key-blade forward.
“No, I heard he lost to a giant squirrel, which is just plain pathetic of a world ending power Fred.” Oleander was everything to me and would Ollies be. “Did you just think of a pun using my name Fred?”
“No---” I slowly drew out the word.
-Back on Elhorn, Amphibian Ark, Cargo Hold subsection D, Pom-
“Now you see Mr. Beezy, now that… that was actually scary and absolutely chilled me to the bone! Why can’t you be more like that, I might actually begin to barely take you seriously or even have the tiniest smidge of respect for you then.” I stated loudly as I glanced behind me as Bruno, Jean and Colleen were keeping the panther machine fairly busy. Oh look the cleaning machines were arriving now and one just got a decent hit in on Bruno… now it was sliced it half as was the three behind it too. Wow… look at them go. All those cleaner bots are the most threatening thing present because of the absolute obscene number of them just flooding into this place. I’m sure they could handle that without me. “Do you want to know what makes it even worse for you in comparison? His name actually caused that kind of response, despite ninety percent of his powers being sealed away, with ten percent of them being lodged in a unicorn. He’s basically stuck in a book and is in a completely different dimension from us. Your name, it doesn’t really do anything Mr. Beezy and you are just a sad, ugly, big old fly with nothing really going for you aside from the vaguely demonic sounding name and a dream that can never be realized because you are just that awful at being pure evil.”
“You dare…” Beelzebug started to say, but I cut him off.
“That is literally an effigy of the one known as Fred, which is what I’d rather call him, he managed that with barely any of his power fully freed up. As for your name, it means absolutely nothing.” I sauntered up to the fly and stared him dead in the eyes. “Correct me if I’m wrong on this, but your plan is this. You require a ridiculous arbitrary number of specific beings for some kind of soul sucking ritual and you intend to drain all these amphibians for power. Said ritual is long, complicated and messy, with the implications that it would take days before anyone would actually die from it. If someone like me did one thing to stop it, it would actually take you something approaching an entire year to set it all up again wouldn’t it? Despite being trapped the amphibians look to be easily surviving off worms and the water somehow trickling down from above. The frogs love swimming in bacteria infested swamps, so none of the people of Hydrigal will die of sicknesses and are all in good health despite the current conditions you’re putting them through. That’s so--- evil of you, you haven’t even killed a single person yet have you?”
“Yes, the guardian water spirit of Hydrigal has been quite the thorn in my side and…” Decided to cut off Mr. Beezy again before he could get going.
“Yada, yada, yada, you are not even denying that I’m entirely correct or else you would have started with denial.” The silence that followed made me smile. “In fact, I would like to even state that you aren’t evil all. Are you just a misjudged bug that needs a big hug?”
“No! I am the demon that will destroy you and everything you have ever…” He tried, he really did. I just shook my head sadly at him and tutted at him loudly.
“If you were actually a real serious threat, then I must know this. Why am I, a being from a people known for impossibly stupid levels of anxiety and fear, just seeing you as a bump in the road that a wagon would run over without remorse or even a second thought?” I sure got him going now, as he was lighting up the entire cave system behind himself in fury. “Nice nightlight display, are you actually going to actually do something with all that or are you just overcompensating like you’re doing with all the robots you have under your control?”
He didn’t answer me right away, he was focusing and building up power, I was loathe to actually try and dodge the attack if he gets it off. I didn’t believe for a second that he could actually hurt me or pull off something that could scratch my wool.
“I feel sorry for you, pity you even, is this really the direction you are going with in life?" I didn’t see him moving to say a word, he was building up power for an attack and it felt… a little tingly. "Is evil really the best you can do, because you really suck at it.”
Oh look, my wool was starting to build up a golden glow, must be some of the dark magic directing itself at me just by proximity.
“Pom, I don’t know what this thing your doing is, but I’m just going to… go... over here, well away from you.” Ocellus quickly hurried away and the sound of robots falling to the floor could be heard.
I looked above my head and watched a stream of dark magic flow into Mr. Beezy coming from the now inert robots, even more was coming from above from the castle and some of it was being pulled out of the barrier keeping the hundreds of frogs held against their will.
“Is this really all the power you can muster this quickly, really? You’re pulling it from the castle, the barrier, the machines you controlled and it still doesn’t feel like much.” I heard Nicole say something, but ignored it.
“The fog is coming.” Ocellus was well off to the side with the others as I stood in front of Mr. Beezy concentrating all his power around himself.
“Yep, that's definitely overcompensating for something at this point.” I stated dryly to the large fly hovering in a sea of purple with red lightning flowing through it.
“I will end you with one blow mortal, I will put every ounce of my strength behind it…” Mr. Beezy only received a dispassionate stare from me. “To make sure you… yes you specifically… will die. So fear the power that I bring upon you mortal, for it will not cease until every hint of your existence is eradicated.”
“Wow… that is… by far… the emptiest threat that I have ever possibly heard in my entire life. I’ve heard some real zingers when it comes to threatening me too! Fred is quite creative, he’d at least make a silverware out of my bones and would use my skull as soup bowl, would have also slurped down my soul by now too. What is it with Demons and all the macabre stuff that you guys are into? I mean I can understand doing these things to your enemies, but demons usually don’t tend to have really unique long term goals aside from getting more powerful so they can rule over a fiefdom like some form of big bully.” I pondered on that thought for a while as Mr. Beezy was continuing to supposedly charge up his ‘ultimate attack’ that was taking minutes to build. I could have interrupted him at any time. “Anyways, whatever you’re about to do, I just want you to know that I’m truly sorry for what’s about to happen… to you at least. I care that you existed, even if you are the most ineffectual demon to ever be known by anyone ever.”
“Shut… UP!” Mr. Beezy lost his concentration and violently popped. All the built up energy just evaporated into thin air and his body was a splattered mess on the ground.
I slowly made my way up to the mess and looked down on it sadly.
“Rest in peace Mr. Beezy.” I bowed my head solemnly and then turned to the freed frogs just standing there staring at me with wide eyes. I looked to Bruno, Jean and Colleen who were as equally mesmerized. Then to Ocellus. I felt a little nervous at all the stares, even the fog just arrived and looked just as lost. “What? What is it? Is there something actually viably threatening here now?!”
Nobody answered and they all turned their gazes to the puddle on the floor, the muck that used to be a demon fly named Mr. Beezy.
In the end I would remember him fondly, he deserved that much for at least trying. He did a lot of spooky stuff, but in the end he popped... like a balloon.
“Well okay then, let’s wrap this all up by getting everyone out of here and deliver the message.” I clapped my hooves together and gave everyone a friendly smile. I hummed a quiet solemn tune as I made my way for the ladder back up with everyone’s eyes following me. “I'm sure Shanty would certainly enjoy this weird story."
-Ocellus-
“Did… she… taunt a demon... to death?” I asked blankly, my left eye started twitching violently. “What the actual bu…”
“Language young lady!” Pom snapped at me and then continued climbing the ladder while humming to herself.
“Is it weird that I’m now absolutely terrified of Pom?” Nicole's emotions quivered.
“Could she be the messiah of canines?!” Why was Colleen suddenly in awe of Pom? Her tail was now a vaguely visible blur.
“That certainly was… something.” Bruno grunted out as he wiped off the chemicals he’d been sprayed with.
“Dear mama, Pappilia my sister, I have returned to say that I have joined the effort against Gedol’s evil as a brave courier and we’ve a message to deliver!” It was Jean who broke the awkwardness.